MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Net gas injections (the difference between volumes injected and withdrawn) into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities in EU countries in August 2026 are at their lowest level in the past six years, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
Since the beginning of April, Europe has managed to inject only 56% of the volumes needed for the upcoming winter season, or 38 bcm of gas in total.
European UGS facilities are currently 62.99% full (17.27 percentage points below the average level for this date over the past five years), compared with 75.7% a year earlier. This is the lowest level for this date since records began in 2011. EU storage facilities currently hold about 68.9 bcm of gas, which is 14.3 bcm less than a year ago. Gazprom previously forecast that gas inventories in European storage facilities might fail to reach even 75% ahead of the next heating season.
TASS previously reported that Europe risks entering the heating season with record-low gas reserves. Average storage replenishment rates at EU UGS facilities in July were among the lowest recorded since 2011, while August saw only a slight acceleration. At the current pace, Europe may fill its storage facilities to only 70%-75% by the traditional start of the autumn-winter season, which would mark the lowest level ever recorded at the beginning of a heating season.
